Being a Pagan Parent

Being a Pagan Parent

This was a subject I was debating on talking about because it puts my family in a public light. However, I don't see many people discussing how to raise their kids in a pagan household. As I've said in other blogs, my husband and I practice two different faiths; I'm heathen and he's a practicing Palero and Osanyin Priest. So, how do we handle educating them? It's pretty easy, honestly.

Heathenry and Youtube

I follow this gentleman on Youtube who runs a in-depth channel on the Norse Religious texts, the Prose and Poetic Eddas. He speaks in the old Norse language as well. We listen to his videos on car rides and talk about the stories we heard. My son is five years old, so he has a lot of questions and breaking things down on his level can be a but challenging. He's absolutely fascinated though and loves to hear the funny stories. My daughter is three so just listens to have a good time. I plan on continuing this until they both know the books well. I also picked up an audible account and buy the Norse mythology books or other subjects they would be interested in for lessons. So far, it's a hit! I would highly suggest this for any parent on the go as much as I am. 

Palo and Music

My husband does plan on having our kids scratchedscrat the faith. Scratching is just a term for initiation. My husband talks to him about Osanyin and Palo when he gets the chance and we already have some spirits for him to work with. Both my husband and son are excited about him coming to age. To teach him more about the Afro-cuban faith, we often play the Yoruba and Congo music  and then my husband hard translates as best as he can. This faith is oral, so anything outside of stories passed down, makes the knowledge limited. 

Indoctrination

We do NOT believe in forcing our children into a particular faith, even ours. We'd prefer it, but it's entirely their choice. We plan on enrolling our son into a Catholic private school. We also took our kids to a Mosque and a Hindu Temple just so he can get a better education and can make sure he's religiously informed from all sides. We're very proud of their interest in our practices and will continue to feed those flames until they can decide how they are fulfilled. 

We will continue this blog talking about the ways we educate our kids in the Pagan paths.

Heathen New Moon and Full Moon Rituals

There are a LOT of tips on how to create your own rituals. They can be done in a coven, with family and friends, or just by yourself. You can be a grandiose as you please or do it on a shoe string budget. The important part is getting YOUR intent across properly. What do you feel needs to be done to make your spell work? Here are a few examples of things you can do and their uses. Try them all or pick and choose whichever correlate best to you and your practice.

The New Moon

From a heathen view point, new moons are meant for new business and was usually when a Thing* would be held. This is still reflected in the new moon being the time of wishes and starting new paths or wanting to bring in new energy or what have you. So around this time I personally work on new products for my shop and go over my new courses for the blog. I also usually always perform a bathing ritual so that I start my month over again. In the traditional religion, heathens would bring certain matter to a close or tie up lose ends two days before the New moon. That way they could start on the next phase or new issues. They also used this time to handle any kind of legal business, so while most neo-pagans might not suggest that kind of spell work, I would. They obviously found this time to be the best to handle such matters, so I trust their judgement.

For my bathing ritual, I use basic herbs and salts you can pick up in your grocery isle. It's the kitchen witch in me. I use about a
teaspoon of sage - cleansing
a teaspoon of lemon peel - removes negative energy
some dried blueberries - blocks negative energy
a teaspoon of basil - money and prosperity
a teaspoon of pink Himalayan salt - purity and harmony
a cup of epson salt
a couple drops of pine essential oil - cleanses spaces and purification

I always take a shower first before doing any kind of bathing ritual so that I don't wash away any of the magickal aspects of the ingredients. This is a practice I highly recommend as the results will have a better sticking power, so try taking a shower before, do the bathing ritual and jump straight into bed, then wait until the next night to take another shower.

Other things to do at this time are to cleanse your scared space and tools, your divination cards, clear the corners of each room that have the heaviest traffic, and relax.

The Full Moon

For the mos part, Heathens celebrate all of their holidays during the full moons of each month and, yes, we have more than just the regular either holidays that you see on the evermore popular Wiccan Wheel of the Year. You'll notice that a lot of my blogs on the holidays correspond to these times and I often don't give specific dates. This is largely because the full moon is never on the same day every year and some months in the new calender won't have holidays, for instance February. I may have waited until Friday because it was easier for me to celebrate Oimelc, but it was supposed to be observed during the wonderful Blood Blue Moon Eclipse. 

That being said, most of my full moon rituals are all spent honoring specific Gods and the changing time of the year. That's no saying you can't incorporate any of the newer ideas and customs into your ritual. The Full Moon is pretty much regarded as the all-purpose spell casting time, so any will work, however it is best for any healing you might need. Eclipses hold special meaning, so we'll do a section on those separately. You can refer to the previous post on moons to find the general substances of moon phases here.

Eclipses

Many heathens revered eclipses as bad omens. They would hold rites to please the gods in return of the moon or sun. Since they could not predict these events, it was likely a rushed offering to the temples and then followed by solemn gatherings and very light footsteps in which ever path they were going. There's not much more on these events, but I would suggest reading more in the Wolves and Mani. I'll return to this section and add on if I ever find more information. So in the mean time, plan a nice Bolt! 

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Footnotes:
A Thing -

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